Book trucks



mwws

M. L. @AWHAM BOOK TRUCKS Filed Oct. 23, 1967 L 1 E 5 W a Q d 0 w w a M United States Patent 3,487,945 BOOK TRUCKS Mary Lea Barham, 701 Princeton, Deer Park, Tex. 77536 Filed Oct. 23, 1967, Ser. No. 677,471 Int. Cl. A47b 65/00 US. Cl. 211-43 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The disclosure of the invention is of book trucks, and the like wherein provision is made for maintaining books loaded on the trucks in upright, side-by-side positions, whereby the books will remain arranged as loaded, and in upright condition, from the point of loading onto the truck to the point of delivery.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The field of the invention is the field pertaining to book trucks, of the type often used for transportation of books from a point of receipt by a library to a point where the books are re-shelved in the stacks of the library and for other uses.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention pertains to book trucks, of a form having shelves for storage and/or transportation of books, these being widely used in libraries and other places wherein books are stored, transported, dispensed, manufactured, used, or the like. Book trucks of several forms are well known in the prior art, having shelves for the holding of books for transportation from one place to another. The book trucks afforded according to this invention have inclined shelves whereby the books are maintained against toppling from the shelves, and to enable reading of the title, number, or the like, on the bookplates or backs of the books from elevated locations, and the book trucks have means for maintaining the books in upright positions on the shelves. While many types of shelved book trucks have been available in the past, none have provided in conjunction with the shelves means for maintaining the books in upright, arranged condition as placed upon the shelves, and regardless of the number of books in place upon a shelf.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view showing a book truck of preferred form according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view showing the book truck shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged partial perspective view showing a form of follow block useful in connection with the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings in detail, the preferred embodiment of apparatus shown in the drawings will now be described. The apparatus has ends or end supports 10, 11 supporting longitudinal shelves 12, 13a, 13b, 14a, and 14b.

Each end support 10, 11 includes a pair of upright post members 16, 17, these being of square horizontal cross section, and having a panel 18 disposed therebetween. The panel 18 at each end of the book truck is fixed in place between the upright supports 16 and 17 in any suitable manner, for example, by dowel pins 181:, or screws or the like inserted through the upright into the Patented Jan. 6, 1970 ICC panel 18 whereby the panel 18 is securely held in place. Each panel 18 terminates at its upper edge 19 below a cross member 20 which is shown to be beveled at its ends to be affixed between the beveled upper ends of members 16, 17. The spaces below the cross members 20 and above the upper ends 19 of the panels 18 provide handles by means of which the book truck may be held for conveyance over a surface.

The shelf 12, the upper of the three shelves shown, extends horizontally perpendicularly between the two end support assemblies 10, 11. Shelf 12 is provided with two movable book supports 25, 26, each of which is movable against books 27 placed side-by-side on shelf 12 to the left of the support as shown in FIG. 1.

Shelves 13a, 13b, 14a, 14b are each inclined shelves, and each shelf extends partially across the widths of the end supports 10, 11, with a gap between the inner sides of each pair of shelves. Each of these shelves slopes downwardly toward the center of the book truck, and between shelves 13a, 13b there is provided a wedgeshaped panel 28, and between shelves 14a, 14b there is provided a Wedge-shaped panel 31. These panels positioned above the levels of the shelves, to facilitate cleaning and removal of trash from the shelves, and extend along the longitudinal center of the book truck as shown. The opposite sides of the panels are each inclined to be perpendicular to the upper surface of one of the shelves.

The panels 28, 31 may be replaced by plural panels or bars, each with a side capable of limiting inward movements of books or other objects on the shelves. These may be vertically longer or shorter than the panels shown.

The inclination of shelves 13a, 13b, 14a, 14b may be of a desired slope. It has been found that for shelves eight inches in width, a satisfactory slope is obtained when the outer edge of a shelf is one inch higher than the inner edge of the shelf. This slope enables reading of the title, call number, etc. on the backs of books from elevated positions, such as by a person standing beside the book truck. The height of the trucks, while subject to considerable variation, will usually be between three and four feet, so that the eyes of a person standing, beside a truck may be several feet above the level of a shelf.

While the shelf inclinations help prevent the falling of books from the shelves, their primary function is to enable the reading of the book titles and/or call numbers without excessive stooping.

The posts 16, 17 at each end of the truck have at their lower ends relatively large, preferably rubber tired, Wheels 3538, at least the wheels at one end of the truck being pivotal about the inserted mounting stern thereof, in order to afford directional guidance of the book truck as it is pushed over a surface.

Each of the shelves 13a, 13b, 14a, 14b is provided with a movable book stop 41, 42, 43, 44. Each of these is movable along the shelf, so that books placed at an end portion of a shelf may be held in upright positions on the shelf without falling down on or falling off of the shelf.

The book stops 25-26 and 41-44, which are sometimes called follow blocks, will usually be identical and may be of any suitable type. In FIG. 3, the book stop or follow block 41 shown is an exemplary type supplied by Brown & Morris Company, and includes a flat vertical metal plate or web 55 having narrow reinforcing flange 56 across its lower edge, and an upper cutaway 57 at its upper edge. A releasing lever 59 is pivoted at pin 60 disposed through opposite lugs 61 (one shown) of plate 63 which is aflixed flushly to the lower back of plate 55 just above flange 56.

Plate 63 extends downwardly through a slot opening of flange 56 and is wider and is bent at 90 at its portion 65 to be slidably disposed within a metal channel 66 which is fixed within an elongate recess 67 in the upper surface of the shelf 13a. The sides of the channel are of U-shaped form at 69, 70, so that Wider portion 65 of plate 63 is held within the channel, but is slidable along the length of the channel. The lower edge 72 of lever 59 may be moved to engage against any of a plurality of lugs 73, of sawtooth configuration, which are spaced along the bottom of the channel. Lever 59 is spring biased by a spring, not shown, so that edge 72 is in its lowermost position engaged with a lug 73 and so that the upper end of the lever is in its outermost position from plate 55. Edge 72 is released from a lug 73 to enable movement of the bookstop along the channel in either direction by movement of the upper end of lever 59 toward plate 55, against the force of the lever biasing spring. This is usually done by grasping plate 55 and the upper end of the lever between the thumb and fingers of one hand, and cutaway 57 facilitates this operation. Edge 72 against one of the lugs 73 keeps the book stop from moving along the channel.

At the outer side of the panel 18 at the right-hand end of the truck as shown in FIG. 1, there is provided a fitting 45 including an interior upwardly opening compartment 46 to receive a writing pad or a plurality of slips of paper for the making of notes, or the like. Fitting 45 has a plurality of pencil receiving bores 47, each disposed downwardly from the upper surface of the fitting, and each being adapted to receive an end of a pencil, or the like.

The panels, shelves, posts, and other members of the trucks may be made of any materials. The posts may be made of hollow or solid metal, of wood, of palstic, or of any other suitable construction material. The end panels 18 and the shelves may be made of metal, wood, plastic, or other suitable material. The connections between the several parts of the book truck may be made in any known manners, for example, the parts may be joined by dowel pins of metal or wood, by screws or bolts, by adhesive bonding, or in any other suitable way.

The book trucks have a pleasing appearance, and are functionally satisfactory, when the posts are of finished tubular metal, with a brushed or satin metal finish, such as brushed chrome or aluminum, or satin chrome or satin aluminum finish, and the panels are laminate in oak, walnut, or other suitable finish.

It will be realized that the posts may be of round or other cross section, that the posts and panels may be of integral construction, and that the panels and posts may be flush instead of inset as shown.

It has not been heretofore known to provide in book trucks of the type herein disclosed book stop means on the shelves for the support of books placed on the shelves. Book stops of various types have been provided on stationary fixed shelves, but never in conjunction with book trucks, or on inclined shelves such as shelves 13a, 13b, 14a, 14b.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, many modifications thereof may be made by a person skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. Improved book truck of the type having plural vertically spaced book shelves extending between supports for the ends of the shelves, the shelves being adapted to receive books from each side of the truck, the improvements comprising shelf means forming at least one of said plural book shelves including a pair of shelf Webs each downwardly inclined inwardly toward the longitudinal center of the truck, follow block means movably fixed at the upper surface of each said shelf web for engaging one side of articles such as books to hold the articles at opposite sides thereof between one of said supports for the ends of the shelves and said follow block moved thereagainst, and elongate separator means disposed spacedly upwardly of and perpendicular to the inner sides of said shelf webs and extending between said supports for the ends of the shelves.

2. The combination of claim 1, said elongate separator means comprising a single vertically disposed panel means having angular opposite faces each disposed p rpendicularly above the inner edge of one said shelf web means.

3. The combination of claim 1, each said follow block means including releasable lock means whereby when the lock means is released the follow block may be moved relative said articles supported on the shelf web and when the lock means is not released the follow block is firmly positioned in article holding disposition above the shelf web.

4. The combination of claim 1, each said end support comprising a spaced pair of vertical post means, plate means extending between said post means from adjacent the lower ends of said post means to a level below the upper ends of said post means, and bar means disposed between the upper ends of said post means spaced above the upper edge of said plate means to form a handle.

5. The combination of claim 4, including holder means affixed to the outer side of said plate means of at least one of said end supports.

6. The combination of claim 1, including horizontal shelf means extending between said end supports having a said follow block means disposed at its upper surface.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,069,477 8/1913 Sampson l29-30 1,820,888 8/1931 Rand 12930 2,346,150 4/1944 Brown 2ll-184 X 2,835,546 5/1958 Rothschild 3l2287 X 2,884,295 4/1959 FOOte 312234.l 3,301,407 l/1967 JOnES 211184 CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner 

